Monday, 20 January 2014

15 Second Review: Lovelace (2013)

Anyone who has seen Inside Deep Throat or read Ordeal, or has any rudimentary interest in porn history will already know the tale. For everyone else (and that is who the movie is aimed at) there is Lovelace. The structure is reasonably smart, setting up the story as a glamorous rise to fame then retelling the story as a tale of abuse, thus matching the Linda Lovelace story itself. For a film that ends with the anti-porn feminist version of the tale told in Ordeal however, Lovelace is decidedly tame. I was genuinely surprised by how restrained and anti-climactic the abuse sequences were. Rather than feeling balanced, the film comes across as cold and apathetic towards Linda's plight. The cast is riddled with familiar names who are given very little material to work with. For a film about the porn industry, this movie sure could do with more "balls".

In addition, I highly recommend listening to the Rialto Report podcast on this very topic, which is far more interesting than Lovelace.